{"database": "press", "table": "releases", "rows": [["https://www.thune.senate.gov/news/press-releases/thune-a-stronger-america-is-a-safer-america-2/", "Thune: A Stronger America Is a Safer America", "2026-06-23", "2026", "2026-06", "Republican", "Senate", "SD", "John Thune", "T000250", "www.thune.senate.gov", "thune", "https://www.thune.senate.gov/news/press-releases/", "scraper", "Click here to watch the video.\n\nWASHINGTON \u2014 U.S. Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-S.D.) today delivered the following remarks on the Senate floor:\n\nThune\u2019s remarks below (as delivered):\n\n\u201cMr. President, I spoke on the floor yesterday about the landmark bill Republicans passed last year: the Working Families Tax Cuts bill.\n\n\u201cAnd I talked about how this bill fits into Republicans\u2019 efforts to turn things around in our country.\n\n\u201cTurn things around by putting more money in Americans\u2019 pockets.\n\n\u201cHelping small businesses grow.\n\n\u201cStrengthening the agriculture sector.\n\n\u201cAnd giving a lifeline to rural health care.\n\n\u201cMr. President, any one of those things alone would have been a significant achievement, but the Working Families Tax Cuts addressed all of them \u2013 all of them and more.\n\n\u201cMuch more.\n\n\u201cAnd this morning, I want to talk about how this bill helps to make America more secure.\n\n\u201cThat too, Mr. President, is unfortunately a turnaround story.\n\n\u201cAnd I say unfortunately, because the previous administration allowed our nation\u2019s security to fall into a sorry state.\n\n\u201cImages of the chaos at the southern border during the Biden administration come to mind.\n\n\u201cSo does the state of our military readiness.\n\n\u201cMr. President, in recent years, our military readiness has not been where it needs to be to deter and counter threats.\n\n\u201cWe\u2019ve had ships in need of maintenance.\n\n\u201cPlanes that can\u2019t fly.\n\n\u201cMeanwhile, China was investing in key military technologies.\n\n\u201cYet the Biden administration showed little interest in making the type of investment needed to get our military back to where it needed to be.\n\n\u201cAnd so when Republicans took control last year, we didn\u2019t waste any time.\n\n\u201cAs part of the Working Families Tax Cuts, Republicans made a generational investment in America\u2019s military.\n\n\u201cIt was a major investment to help get our readiness to where it needs to be \u2013 quickly.\n\n\u201cIt invested in shipbuilding, missile defense, defense manufacturing capacity, critical munitions, drones and counter-drone technology, an expanded Air Force fighter fleet, nuclear modernization, U.S. infrastructure in the Pacific, and more.\n\n\u201cAnd alongside robust funding in the annual defense bill, these investments will help restore America\u2019s military strength and make our adversaries think twice before crossing us.\n\n\u201cMr. President, as I mentioned, we also needed to address border security.\n\n\u201cWhen President Trump took office, he wasted no time implementing policies that restored order at America\u2019s southern border and put criminal illegal immigrants living in our country on notice.\n\n\u201cAnd we saw the results.\n\n\u201cIllegal crossings dropped precipitously.\n\n\u201cBorder agents weren\u2019t being stretched so thin anymore, and could spend more time stopping cartels and other criminals.\n\n\u201cThat\u2019s how things should be at the border, Mr. President.\n\n\u201cAnd Republicans are making sure that it stays that way.\n\n\u201cAs part of the Working Families Tax Cuts, we made a generational investment in border security.\n\n\u201cWe provided the resources necessary to finish the border wall and deploy additional barriers and technology to secure the border.\n\n\u201cThere was funding to support the hiring of new agents.\n\n\u201cAnd to bring on more immigration judges to address the massive backlog in immigration cases.\n\n\u201cAnd those resources are making a difference.\n\n\u201cThanks to President Trump and the Working Families Tax Cuts, as of the end of last month apprehensions at the southern border are more than 90 percent lower than they were under the Biden administration.\n\n\u201cBorder Patrol is seeing a few hundred border crossings on a typical day \u2013 compared with as many as 10,000 in a single day at times under President Biden.\n\n\u201cAnd not a single illegal immigrant has been released from the border in more than a year.\n\n\u201cMr. President, the American people support border security.\n\n\u201cAnd keeping America safe should be something that cuts across party lines.\n\n\u201cUnfortunately, our Democrat colleagues have repeatedly demonstrated zero interest in border security, and they\u2019ve consistently reaffirmed their belief in open borders.\n\n\u201cFirst there was their complicit silence as the Biden administration opened our borders to a flood of illegal immigrants.\n\n\u201cThen every Democrat opposed our border security measures in the Working Families Tax Cuts.\n\n\u201cAnd then this year \u2013 this year, Mr. President, Democrats took their radical open-border beliefs to a new level and tried to defund Border Patrol and ICE.\n\n\u201cThat\u2019s right.\n\n\u201cDemocrats not only opposed giving these agencies adequate resources to do their jobs, they opposed giving them any resources.\n\n\u201cFortunately, Democrats\u2019 radical proposal did not carry the day.\n\n\u201cAnd Republicans were once again able to fund border security and immigration enforcement \u2013 unfortunately without Democrats\u2019 assistance.\n\n\u201cMr. President, the security of our country is one of our greatest responsibilities.\n\n\u201cWithout it, nothing else matters.\n\n\u201cIt\u2019s a responsibility that Republicans are taking seriously.\n\n\u201cThe Working Families Tax Cuts is a big step toward a more secure America.\n\n\u201cIt invests in safer streets with funding for state and local law enforcement.\n\n\u201cSafer skies by supporting air traffic control modernization.\n\n\u201cA secure border.\n\n\u201cAnd a strong military.\n\n\u201cMr. President, we all watch the news and can see that the world is a dangerous place.\n\n\u201cThere will always be bad actors and other dangers threatening the safety and security of the American people.\n\n\u201cBut Republicans are working to ensure there are individuals standing ready to protect us, and that they have everything they need to keep America safe.\n\n\u201cMr. President, a stronger America is a safer America.\n\n\u201cAnd that\u2019s what Republicans are delivering.\u201d", 1, "2026-06-24T06:25:30Z", "2026-06-24T06:26:49Z"]], "columns": ["url", "title", "date", "year", "month", "party", "chamber", "state", "member_name", "bioguide_id", "domain", "scraper", "source", "date_source", "text", "has_text", "collected_at", "updated_at"], "primary_keys": ["url"], "primary_key_values": 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